H28: Providing definitions for abbreviations by using the abbr and acronym elements

Applicability

User Agent and Assistive Technology Support Notes

Assistive technologies provide different levels of support for speaking abbreviations and acronyms, often dependent upon specific customization settings.

This technique is only sufficient if the abbr or acronym element's title attribute is accessibility supported. The content of the title attribute needs to be available to all keyboard users (not only those with text-to-speech software) for this attribute to be accessibility supported.

JAWS 6.2 and higher and WindowEyes 5.0 and higher support the abbr and acronym elements. They can all be set to speak the title attribute when these elements are encountered, but this is not the default setting and is often not turned on by users.

Many graphical user agents render text enclosed within an abbr or acronym element with a dotted line below or surrounding it. In addition, when the mouse hovers over the element, the expansion is displayed as a tool tip.

In Internet Explorer 7 and below, items marked using the abbr element are not displayed with any additional formatting. For IE 6 and below, the expanded version does not display as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over the item.

Within a given user agent or assistive technology, abbr and acronym elements are presented to users in the same way.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide expansions or definitions for
abbreviations by using the abbr and acronym elements.

It is always appropriate to use the abbr element for any abbreviation,
including acronyms and initialisms. When using HTML and XHTML,
initialisms and acronyms may be marked up using the acronym element.
Versions of HTML after HTML 4 eliminate the acronym element in favor of the more general
abbr element.

Examples

Example 1: Using abbr element to expand abbreviations.

Example Code:

<p>Sugar is commonly sold in 5 <abbr title="pound">lb.<abbr> bags.</p>
<p>Welcome to the <abbr title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr>!</p>

Example 2: Using abbr element to define abbreviations.

Example Code:

<p>Tasini <abbr title="and others">et al.</abbr> <abbr title="versus">v.</abbr>
The New York Times <abbr title="and others">et al.</abbr> is the landmark lawsuit
brought by members of the National Writers Union against ......</p>

Example 3: Using the acronym element to expand an acronym

Example Code:

<p>The use of <acronym title="Keep It Simple Stupid">KISS</acronym> became popular in ...</p>

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Check that an expansion or definition is provided for each abbreviation via
abbr or acronym.

Expected Results

Check #1 is true.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Techniques are Informative

Techniques are informative—that means they are not required. The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.0 is the success criteria from the WCAG 2.0 standard—not the techniques. For important information about techniques, please see the Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria section of Understanding WCAG 2.0.